Director Jon Ludwig and his crew of puppeteers are paying homage to a cherished children’s book this summer at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Midtown.

“Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat” premiered at the center last week as the first “all-puppet” version of the performance.

Ludwig said this is the Southeast’s first time to offer the theatrical adaptation of the book.

“We’ve been wanting to do this piece since 1978 and we finally got the right to it,” he said.

The book was originally adapted and directed by Katie Mitchell for the National Theatre of Great Britain, and the show is now being produced in America.

“It’s like walking into the book,” Ludwig said. “[The set designer] really made it look exactly like the book with the beautiful iconic blue that’s in the background of most of the book. It has every detail, prop, stitch and cross-hatch from the book.”

The story includes only six characters, he said, with duplicates of several of them, amounting to between 20 and 30 puppets, including rod puppets and hand-and-mouth puppets.

Amy Sweeney, who has worked at the center for 12 years, is one of the six puppeteers in the show, and plays the boy who tells the story.

“I am excited about bringing the story to life for the kids,” she said.

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